Since we obviously cannot safeguard our border with Mexico, it seems to me the next best choice is to annex Mexico. Let's declare Mexico a protectorate of the United States and set about governing it in a benevolent, but self-interested way. In time, we could incorporate it as several new States.

The current illegal flow of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States constitutes the largest diaspora in modern history. An estimated 10% of Mexico's population of more than 107 million people is now living in the United States. About 15% of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States and one in every seven Mexican workers migrates to the United States.

The immediate benefits of annexation are obvious. Mexico's oil industry is its largest provider of revenue, but is very poorly managed. Its vast revenues are not benefiting the Mexican people who clearly feel compelled to emigrate to the United States. The Mexican government relies on oil income because its national tax evasion rate is more than 40%.

Given America's growing need for oil, annexing Mexico and denationalizing its oil industry would permit the investment necessary to upgrade it while providing less reliance on foreign sources in the turbulent Middle East or Venezuela.

The second largest source of income for Mexico is the remittances Mexicans who are illegally in the United States send home. It is currently estimated at between $23 and $25 billion. That is equal to the foreign aid the United States annually provides to the entire world. It is nearly equal to what Mexico's oil industry generates every year.

It is U.S. money that is literally going south while native-born and naturalized Americans are required to fund our education and health systems that provide free care for illegal Mexicans and their families, a vast number of whom qualify for welfare as well. The U.S. is literally importing poverty. Economist Robert J. Samuelson has noted that, "the ranks of the poor are constantly replenished. Since 1980, the number of Hispanics with incomes below the government's poverty line (about $19,300 in 2004 for a family of four) has risen 162 percent."

Meanwhile, a June 2004 agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that is waiting for
President Bush's signature would literally bankrupt the Social Security system if approved by Congress. The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexicans to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.

A study by the United Nations Population Fund concluded that remittances to Mexico are, in fact, not helping that nation's economy. The money is primarily spent on groceries and other daily expenses. A study by the Banco de Mexico, its central bank, came to the same conclusion, noting that reliance on remittances was itself a cause of poverty since it provides fewer incentives to seek other sources of income.

By annexing Mexico and encouraging American business and industry to expand there, creating new jobs, improving that nation's prosperity, Mexicans would have less need to relocate in America. Even a Mexican government spokesman, addressing a press conference in January 2006, acknowledged that many of the illegals are actually seeking "a better condition of life despite the fact that they had work here."

Then there's the issue of crime. Mexico is a major corridor for the drug cartels that feed the addictions of American citizens. The cartels are violent and have corrupted the governance of Mexico at all levels. By annexing Mexico, we can more effectively battle this pernicious enemy that already threatens the peace of many southwestern cities and communities.

There is the language problem and, frankly, English will have to become a mandatory second language for Mexicans if they insist on coming to America to work or live here. Many Americans throughout the southwest have had to learn Spanish just to converse with their neighbors and to conduct business. For generations, Puerto Ricans have routinely learned and used both languages.

Will we allow Mexicans to vote in American elections? Yes, but only when they become Americans! Initially we would need a long period of assimilation and acceptance of American values in the same fashion we currently mandate for those seeking citizenship through our naturalization process.

American laws and jurisdiction to facilitate trade, guarantee the rights of their citizens, and initiate a crackdown on the drug cartels that threaten the police, the courts, and other Mexican leaders would replace current Mexican laws.

There is more than a bit of arrogance for thousands of Mexicans, illegal aliens, to march in the streets of American cities demanding that we grant them privileges equal to Americans without the responsibilities of citizenship, i.e., paying taxes and obeying our laws.

The greatest benefit of annexation is that America would avoid becoming a de facto Third World nation.

Mexico would not cease to exist. It would become a functioning element of an expanded United States of America. Mexican-Americans would enjoy the full benefits of citizenship while retaining their unique history and culture. In the past, America has achieved this with millions of former Irish, Italian, Russian, German, and other nationalities.

Mexico as a separate nation on our southern border threatens our sovereignty by virtue of openly and deliberately encouraging millions of its citizens to ignore our laws, enter our nation illegally, and benefit from our economy.

Mexico as a protectorate and, eventually, a part of America, is a realistic, rational solution. Mexicans are here already. Let's make them Americans who will want to live in the former nation of Mexico.

Impossible, you say? Probably yes, but if you have begun to see how impossible it is for the United States to continue absorbing millions of illegal immigrants, then you will understand why the defeat of the immigration "reform" legislation is a victory for the sovereignty and security of the United States.